> In the recent thread "Clearing Red Wine" Tom S. made the comments
> >Fining is best done on a wine that is nearly or already clear. The idea is
> >to improve the _flavor_ - not to achieve clarity, although improved clarity
> >will frequently be a side benefit.

I wouldn't say the primary purpose in fining is to change flavour -
that's only part of it (though the idea is helpful). A wider view is
that fining is about removing *something* from wine. It could be for
flavour/aroma, but it's also done to remove bitterness, astringency,
hazes, and even colour.

> additives will "strip flavour" out of a wine and so I had been adverse to
> using them.

Whether they remove flavour specifically (i.e. flavour compounds, such
as esters for e.g.) is highly debatable. But certainly, they can
modify taste.

> 1. If fining can be used to make a flavour difference - can filtering also
> be effective?

That's also a highly debatable issue too (witness the debate amongst
wine critics etc). In so far as removing the influence the
particulates filtered would have on flavour, I'd say yes. But in
modifying the wine flavour beyond that, I'd say no.

> 2. Tom spoke mostly about using bentonite - which fining agents have the
> most to give as regards changing the flavour of a wine for the better?

Add to Tom's list: carbons, PVPP, tannin, and even the yeast itself!

> 3. Since the discussion in the reference post was about red wines - is the
> same true for whites - and if so what advice would you have?

Firstly, whites are more likely to be "hot unstable", so bentonite is
a biggy.
Secondly, whites *tend to be* more delicate so gentler fining agents
tend to be used (less egg whites and gelatine and more casein and
isinglass for example).

(Before anyone chimes in that gelatine is used extensivley in whites,
think of the white you're talking about: of course heavily oaked
Chardonnay can take it, but would you so readily gelatine fine a light
Riesling?)

> And while I'm at it - how do you get that diacetyl butterscotch flavour - in

As Tom says: rack before MLF inoculation and rack after (to minimise
the yeast and MLB populations, respectively). (Both yeast and LAB
reduce diacetyl.)

Maximum diacetyl concentration tends to coincide with the exhaustion
of malic acid during MLF so do the post-MLF racking as soon as MLF is
complete.

> butterscotch vanilla taste out of the wine.

BTW, the butterscotch flavour may well be an oak-diacetyl/MLF combo,
but the vanilla will come from the oak, not from the MLF.

Ben

Improved Winemaking
More about MLF: http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/MLF.htm
and lees: http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/Surlie.htm